Bermuda

Observed change

There has been an increase in the frequency and magnitude of
coral disease and bleaching events over the last three
decades.

Data from the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study station show
carbon dioxide levels at the ocean surface of the Sargasso Sea
southeast of the Bermuda Triangle are rising at about the same rate
as atmospheric carbon dioxide. The change is even greater at deeper
levels: in the waters between 250 and 450 m deep, carbon
dioxide levels are rising at nearly twice the rate of the surface
waters (Glick, 2004).

Implications and possible future impacts

Bermuda’s mangrove forests are threatened by salt water
inundation due to rising sea levels. Climate change is contributing
to the death of mangroves at the Hungry Bay Mangrove Swamp, a
designated wetland of international importance under the Ramsar
Convention. This mangrove forest is considered to be “in
retreat.”

Turtle nesting sites are subject to erosion from tropical
storms and hurricanes that affect the island.

Bermuda’s coral system is distinctive for being the most
northerly of its kind in the world and is among the more
geographically isolated reefs. The fate of this reef system is
linked to those of the Caribbean, which seed them. The decline in
Caribbean coral (see section 3.2.3) will likely affect coral
dispersal and gene flow to Bermuda, increasing the geographically
isolation of the system there. Limited genetic variation
within isolated populations in marginal environments, like the
North Atlantic, could lead to a weakening of the coral’s capacity
to respond to or recover from environmental disturbances. Local
coral deaths, whether caused by pollution, dredging, disease
outbreaks, hurricane damage or thermally induced bleaching, will
have lasting effects (Jones, 2004).